Ali looked around the unfamiliar room wide eyed as panic surged through her system. Where was she? Where was her mother? She couldn't remember anything. Not what had happened after drinking what was in the crystal vial, not what had happened to her mother, not how she had gotten in this strange room or where she was or who had taken her from her mothers side when her mother needed her with her, and she was so-so very afraid that she had somehow been dragged away from her mothers side by one of her father's sick friends.

The room itself was beautiful, the curtains and bed sheets were all a shimmery sapphire blue, aqua, silver and turquoise satin like material. The carpet was a pretty cream color that matched the walls. The wooden furniture was a soft bleached off white cherry wood.

There were no pictures, though she could plainly see two large book shelves that ran from ceiling to floor full of leather bound books next to a white marble fire place, a window, a chair with a man in it-

Wait. There was someone in the room with her? She looked at the dark figure and had to slap her hands over her mouth to keep from crying out in fear while mentally berating herself for starting to act like a weak minded woman when she was anything but weak. She had gone through hell to become strong and independent. To become the type of person who wasn't afraid of what others might do to her or think of her.

She had learned through experience how to fight. And she fought dirty.

If this person was one of her fathers friends trying to break her again and make her into a proper toy, she wouldn't hesitate to kill him as soon as his back was turned. She was no ones toy and it was time her father and his friends gave up on making her into one.

She took a second to pull herself together and suppress the shaking in her limbs and let her hands fall away from her mouth and settle in her lap as the man slowly got up out of his seat and walked towards the bed. He paused just outside of kicking range and she felt the intense need to provoke him into coming closer so that she could rip off his balls and hand them to him, but suppressed it and tipped her head back to look at him and almost gasped as she got a good look at him.

Dear god in heaven he looked like the devil himself!

He was a dark and angelic looking man with strikingly beautiful features and the most exotic looking blue eyes, his hair hung loosely down his back almost to his waist, some of the dark silken strands curling around his face and shoulders slightly.

"Did you sleep well?" He asked in a polite tone as he studied her tousled appearance. She might want to shower and change her clothes in a little bit, but right now he felt he needed to explain where she was, and how she had gotten here, and why she was here.

Ali stared at him a fraction of a second too long before she answered, her tone and expression wary. "Yes."

He gave her a small nod and folded his arms across his chest. "I imagine that you have questions."

Ali said nothing. She just nodded her head and the man gave her a small smile. "I will do my best to answer them, but first I just want you to know that you are in a safe place far from your father and his cruelty, and no one here will ever harm you. I'll make sure of it personally."

Ali shivered. She just couldn't help it, there was something about the way he had just spoken that made her think that he was a man fully capable of murder. The thought of being in the hands of someone like him simply chilled her to the bone.

Julian saw her shiver and shrugged off his jacket thinking that she must have gotten cold considering that the fire in the fire place had died down hours ago and the room had become a little bit chilly. He moved forward a little bit and draped his jacket around her shoulders startling her a little bit if the way she jumped and stared at him trough wide frightened eyes that made his heart ache.

Nightmare had been right. She looked exactly like her mother. Her features, her eyes, her slender and delicate build.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you. I was just trying to keep you from catching a chill." He said as he moved back away from her and waited for her to settle down again.

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Alice Evangeline Mary Liddol was a very patient for a fifteen year old girl. Everyone had told her so. Her mother. Her grand parents. The one or two friends that hadn't betrayed her to her father. She sat on the bed, making sure to stay as far from this strange man's reach as she could just in case she needed to try and make a run for it, and listened to him speak.

So far he had told her his name and that they were in a place called Heartland. Which sounded a mite on the familiar/suspicious side to her. He was one of the title holders in some territory and lived in a castle like mansion where he worked on clocks.

Once he was done telling her that much he walked across the room to his dresser and pulled out something and walked back over to the bed and laid a large sky blue book on the edge of the bed along with what looked like some money and stepped back again.

"Your free to do as you like. To come and go as you like. I will not stop you. You can stay here in one of the other rooms if you want too, or you can stay somewhere else. The book is yours and so is the money. I'm not very used to having guests, so I'm ill equipped to see to your needs. You can probably buy some clothes and other things in the town about a mile or so from here..."

"You're not going to stop me?" Ali asked almost suspiciously as she inched towards the edge of the bed on her hands and knees. Julian blinked at her and shook his head no.

"Trust is earned little one." And he could tell already that she didn't trust him. He pulled out his pocket watch and checked the time, it was a habit that he had formed after Alice had left. He had started mentally counting the minutes, the hours and days, silently hoping that she would return.

"I have work to do. Please feel free to explore and do whatever you want. I'll likely be busy for a while." He put his watch away and turned and started to walk away when Ali called out to him in an almost panicked voice, stopping him in his tracks. He turned his head slightly to look at her and noticed that she seemed to be silently cursing herself for calling out to him then asked in a worried tone.

"You never told me where my mother was. Is she here?" Julian felt as he had just been struck, the air left his lungs and he turned around to face her and said the most horrible thing any man could say to a young girl.

"I'm sorry. But you may never see you're mother again." He didn't say it to hurt her, or to make her cry or upset her. He was simply being honest. Ali might never see her mother again and she would have to get used to that fact if she was going to live in Heartland, or else she would never be happy.

Ali had a stricken expression on her face that tugged at his heartstrings, made his heart ache painfully in his chest as he turned away again and walked out of the room just as she climbed off of the bed and ran to the door, pushing him out of her way a little bit as she ran past him and out into the hall then looked around for a second and picked which way to go and took off as fast as she could. He stood in the doorway watching her and sighed.

God this was a mess.

How were the title holders supposed to make Ali happy when she might always search for the ghost of the mother that she would never see again?